Urban Ecoist

Maybe a year or two ago, I ran across a show on maybe Science Channel or National Geographic about this company in New Jersey that made organic fertilizer and packaged it in “reclaimed” milk jugs. I thought to myself, “Now that’s using your noggin’!”

Well, methinks that the show was on National Geographic, because starting tonight National Geographic Channel premieres Garbage Moguls, a show about that same company. And on Earth Day, now that is foresight!

I happened to receive some info on Garbage Moguls, thanks to the good people at NatGeo. Truthfully, I would prefer an ongoing series, to witness and share the dizzying highs and terrifying lows of the company called TerraCycle , run by a Princeton drop-out (why is that everyone that thinks outside the box and goes to a top private school drops out?) and his merry band of eco- and cash-minded cohorts, but then again, how exciting can garbage or a Princeton drop-out really be?

Despite my misgivings about the show due NatGeo’s tendency toward repetition after commercial breaks (like we cannot remember two minutes ago, give your viewers some credit NG!) and to the press release for Garbage Moguls, which says things like it’s a “real-life Generation ‘Y’ dramedy in the vein of ‘The Office.’”, I’m hoping Garbage Moguls will be interesting and informative enough to inspire viewers to also think outside the box in terms of what you are throwing away around the house. As I mentioned before, I’ve seen TerraCycle featured on a television program before tonight (9pm EST/6pm PST with additional airings Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and next Wednesday — check out NatGeo for times) and as I still remember it, it must have been pretty good.

Also, and I’m just putting this out there, but I’m a little confused as to why Terracycle has to preserve the overt branding involved in the original materials. Maybe by removing the brand name labels from the plastics used by TerraCycle would dimish the quality and integrity of the materials, but I have to say that having a kite made from Oreo packaging with the word OREO splashed all over is not all that appealing to a girl like me that doesn’t like advertising all over her stuff. Maybe it’s because these particular kites are destined for Wal-Mart (yet another no-no in my eyes).

In addition to info about Garbage Moguls, I noticed that the website has some DIY projects using trash. Click on the “MORE” option on the site and you can learn how to make things yourself with something that you’d be throwing away. These beads made from cookie wrappers look good in a digital image, but I have to wonder how they look up close. Only one way to find out…

National Geographic, Garbage Moguls, NatGeo, television, Earth Day, TerraCycle, New Jersey, garbage, trash, landfill, reclaimed, recycled, DIY, projects

If you have been reading this site, you may have noticed that I spend some days focused on ecology outside the Urban Ecoist’s immediate concern, and I do that because most people that are concerned about the ecology in one place are concerned about the ecology every place.

Has anyone out there caught Animal Planet’s new series Whale Wars?

Whale Wars follows the increasingly incompetent adventures of the Sea Shepherd, an environmental NGO hell-bent on saving the whales. Go ahead, check out the link in that last sentence, and you will find no end of things to laugh at on the site. Actually, that is not fair. The website doesn’t seem funny until after you’ve watched an episode or two of the series.

OK, let’s begin. Whaling has a long history of greed and waste and the near-extinction of many species of whales. I abhor whale hunting, and only in a few instances, do I think it is “culturally justified” and in those cases, I think the number of whales harvested should only be enough to satisfy the handful of people on this planet who entire way of life revolves around the whale, as it was one of the few prey that those few, few people had throughout their history.

When it comes to the Japanese (picture above to right), sorry, but you are an industrialized nation that has absolutely no need whatsoever for hunting whales. And yet, Japan regularly hunts whales, and a lot of them.

This is where the Sea Shepherd ship of fools come into play.

Sea Shepherd sails out and tries to harass the Japanese whaling fleet every season, and this last season was filmed and we get to watch it from the comfort of our urban living rooms.

And oh my, if you have ever had the desire to volunteer for an environmental organization or maybe still harbor that notion, Whale Wars will make you happy that you never signed up for active duty on the front lines, per se.

I honestly don’t know where to begin, as I don’t want to dissuade anyone from checking the show out on their own. It is too, too funny. The captain is a fat, slovenly, kicked-out-of-Greenpeace fascist that never seems to be around when the sh*t is going down. He has two toadies, a guy that looks just like the guy who was the right hand man of Jack Nicholson as the Joker in the first Batman movie; and the other guy is a scrawny guy from Sweden (although his accent is strangely Middle-American) with huge nostrils and an upturned nose, so you cannot help but be looking up his nose the whole time. He has an “executive producer/quartermaster” that seems to also do nothing most of the time, except talk about everyone else. Luckily, she decided to stay behind in Melbourne in this last episode, so hopefully, she won’t be on camera anymore.

And then there is the crew. A lot of bleeding hearts that thought, “hey, a semester at sea and we get to save whales. Righteous.” But the crew is likable, and you only like them more when you see what madness they have subjected themselves to aboard the Sea Shepherd’s flagship, the ill-named Steve Irwin (I don’t think Mr. Irwin would want his name attached to this megalomanical captain and his delusions of grandeur).

I think the most shocking thing about Whale Wars i.e. Sea Shepherd is how absolutely incompetent these people are. I mean, seriously, I am surprised they manage to keep the boat afloat.

If this is all the whales have, they are screwed.

Animal Planet, Whale Wars, Sea Sheperd, conservation, environmentalists, NGOs, whaling, Japanese, extinction, Steve Irwin, Melbourne, whales, ecology

If you were not already aware of it, there is a high-numbered cable channel called Planet Green.  It is part of the Discovery family of cable channels, and I have to say it is the least fav of all the Discovery channels.  In fact, I mostly hate Planet Green — except for Bill Nye’s show, Stuff Happens.

I know, I know, of all people, you’d think that an Urban Ecoist like myself, I’d be all about Planet Green, but really, it is so lame. The shows always seem to revolve around some B-list celebrity and how cool they are because they are eco-conscious. I mean, Adrian Genier? Give me a break. Planet Green is making a huge mistake with this focus on celebrities telling the rest of American how to live “green”. One, nobody really cares what an actor or rapper thinks, and the only people that would care are simply blindly following just another “trend” that an overpaid celebrity is hawking. Also, if I may point out, Discovery has never had problems in the past with using actual experts in the field, like scientists, so why now this reliance on actors with no relevant experience other than shopping for a hybrid. I would rather hear advice and research from an actual scientist than watching a lame game show with host Tom Green (seriously, please tell me his last name is the only reason he got the job, because it sure wasn’t his talent). True story — my boyfriend will turn on Planet Green just to annoy me. It usually works, but then…

Enter Bill Nye.

Mark Davis/Getty Images

I have been a fan of Bill Nye for years. He’s a big dork, with no apparent ego, and he makes sense. He’s got that old-school vaudeville-esque style that can appeal to kids as well as adults, and his show is interesting and informative.

Example…aluminum causes tooth loss in cows. I did not know that. It’s actually the mining of bauxite that releases certain substances that are harming cow teeth on nearby farms.

The boyfriend and I stumbled across Stuff Happens, and we have watched a few episodes “on demand” thanks to Comcast. It’s funny whenever Nye poses a question to his audience, Chris turns to me and had made it a little game to see if I already know about the topic. I mean, I write about this stuff, so I should know about it, yes?

And here’s a kicker for you. I never use non-stick pans when I cook, much to Chris’ chagrin as he washes quite a few pots and pans on a weekly basis. He always complains about my non-stick choices, and I always tell him that I don’t trust the non-stick coating on his pans, as they are pock-marked and scratched. And then, we watched the Kitchen episode of Stuff Happens. The next morning, I awoke to the sounds of breakfast being made. I walked into the kitchen and a non-stick pan had been used for Chris’s scrambled eggs. He’ll listen to Bill Nye, but not to me. Sigh.

Hopefully, Bill Nye can create a few spinoffs for Planet Green, as he is the only thing worth watching.

Planet Green, Discovery, channel, cable, Bill Nye, Stuff Happens, Adrian Gernier, Tom Green, television, episode, kitchen, aluminum, non-stick pans